Bedtime Story
by TalksToSelf
Summary: SPOILERS FOR 189 SxS. Sakura wakes up from that dream, aware that she’ll have to let her son go… and unaware when she’ll next see him. Together she and Syaoran bid him one final goodnight


A/n: Just a short piece with SPOILERS FOR LATEST CHAPTERS

Sakura wakes up from _that _dream, aware that she'll have to let her son go… and unaware when she'll next see him.

_**Bedtime Story  
**_  
Her sheets stuck to her, sweat cooling already on her body as she sat bolt upright. The moonlight crept in through her window and the room was so still, beside her she could hear her lover breathing softly, sleeping. He was innocently unaware of her current plight.  
"Mistress?" Whispered a voice in the darkness, and she looked up to see familiar silver eyes and long silver hair. He seemed to materialise from the darkness, and bathed in moonlight he looked ghostly and somewhat intimidating. Had she not known him so well, Sakura may have been frightened of the strange figure in her room.  
"I've told you that you shouldn't come into the bedroom at night Yue-san." She whispered, peeling the sheets from her body as she got shakily to her feet. She had to see him, she had to see her little boy.  
"You were worried," Yue responded coolly, and followed her. "Was it…"  
"As I expected." She mumbled, hand on the blue door handle of her son's room, however before she could open it, Yue's hand closed over hers.

"You should wait…" He breathed.  
"I can't wait, I want to…" She cried softly, but didn't do anything to remove his hand.  
"He'll want to be there." And she knew he was right, it was very wrong of her to keep it from Syaoran for now… but that dream had been so vivid, she knew she had hours left before she'd have to face saying goodbye to her little boy.  
"I… I can't let him go." She whimpered. "There has to be some other way." Her tone was pleading, a choke tumbling from her throat and she fell to her knees. She half expected Yue's hand on her shoulder as comfort, but it didn't come, instead she was enveloped in gold tinted wings, Yue vanishing down the stairs.  
"Sakura… what has to be done has to be done." He too sounded sad, for all he chastised the young brat, he was Sakura's angel and he was loved very much by every occupant of the household.  
"But why does it have to be done to MY little boy Kero-chan?" She begged, hugging the lion like creature that had come to calm her, he nuzzled himself against her neck.  
"Here…" Yue was back, he kneeled beside her and raised the cool glass to her lips. She continued to sob, even as she drank, droplets of icy cold water spilling down her chin mingling with the warm salty tears and dripping onto her nightdress.

"Should we go wake the brat?" Despite his age, Kero in whatever form he chose, still called Syaoran a brat, even though he was now the man Sakura loved most.  
"I'll do it…" Yue nodded, and went back into the bedroom he was not supposed to enter at night (for… obvious reasons)  
"Kero-chan." She whispered, her green eyes glassy as she spoke. "I'll do whatever it takes, as a card captor… as a sorceress… to save the world or dimension or whatever… but I'm a mother first and foremost… I cannot foresake my own baby." Her hand reached out, through the gap in her guardian's wings and she placed a few uncertain fingers on the door, the wood cold beneath her touch. Beyond that door lay her child, sleeping, blissfully unaware of the dangers that may await him. Another sob wracked her body and this time she was embraced by familiar arms.  
"It was…" Syaoran whispered, but didn't need to finish, seeing the stone cold expressions on the faces of her protectors.  
"As she expected… he must go."  
"Sakura…" He stroked her hair and held her against his chest, letting her cry her heart out. He would not condone her stopping their son embarking on his destiny, but he shared her sorrow, for all the bravery and spark his young son possessed (reminiscent of his own younger days), he was still only 7 years old, and the thought of sending him away terrified him.

"Why?" She cried, clinging to him her nails scraping pitifully against his bare chest, not intending to hurt but desperately reaching out to him. He rubbed her back gently. "Why him?"  
"Destiny I guess… Sakura we've known this for a while." It was true, she had paid the price for the defining dream, but Sakura had been getting fragmented snippets of her sons imminent fate in her sleep for months, causing her to lose weight, sleep and temper.  
"LIKE THAT MAKES IT ANY EASIER!" She wailed.  
"You'll wake him." Yue warned.  
"Uh guys… a little alone time?" The sorceror prompted, but that seemed to infuriate the sweet woman in his arms.  
"Oh sure send them away like you're going to send our child out into a world we've never even…" The beasts of the seal did not move, they would only leave on Sakura's instruction, and right now she was devastated, they would not leave her side until necessary.  
"Sakura if he's needed elsewhere, we have no right to keep him here." He sounded hurt, he hated to be the bad guy… well, actually he quite _liked_ to be the bad guy: but not with Sakura.  
"You two really will wake the little brat!" the sun guardian warned, aware their voices were raising in the tense situation.  
"I carried him for nine months, I sat through _**thirty-one** _hours of labour I THINK I have the right to keep him!" She cried, pummelling his chest with her small fists, again not intending to hurt, she wanted support. He'd seen her act like this with her big brother Toya, and she loved him dearly: she just didn't cope with bad situations well and never had.

"And if he can save even ONE person's life wherever he's going… then none of that was in vain was it?" He stroked his fingers down her face, catching sight of her pale tear stricken face in the shaft of moonlight illuminating the hall. She looked so fragile, but it would take more than this to break her, she was strong enough for that: even without her star wand. "Sakura… I don't want him to leave either but… it has to be done."  
"NO NO NO!" She wailed, covering her ears with her hands and shaking her head. "HE'LL BE KILLED OUT THERE SYAORAN HE'S JUST A BABY!" Her fingers dug into the side of her head and Syaoran had to drag them away and hold them clasped to still her.  
"Sakura you mustn't talk like that!" Partially because that talk was detrimental to her mental state, partially because they were just outside his room, and partially because he simply didn't want to hear it… he knew it could be true.  
"BUT IT'S THE TRUTH, IT'S REALITY WHETHER WE LIKE IT OR NOT!" She howled.  
"YOU DON'T BELIEVE IN HIM THAT'S THE PROBLEM! YOU NEED TO HAVE MORE FAITH IN HIM THAN THAT!" He ordered, and then the door creaked open.

One large amber eye stared at them while the other was shielded by a fist rubbing sleep from it, and a bewildered looking little boy in pyjamas stood surveying the scene. Both 'his' guardians stood aside his parents, who were sat on the floor, hugging and crying… even his father had tears in his eyes.  
"What's going on?"  
"Go back to bed." Syaoran said, standing up, pulling Sakura up with him. She was pale and shaking, and he knew his mother would not react so badly had something not been really wrong. His wide brown eyes locking with his mother's, before he flung himself at her waist, cuddling her close. Her arms fell around him and she returned the hug, continuing to cry silently. Syaoran sighed heavily, stroking his sons hair as Yue and Kero looked on hopelessly. All but the youth knew this was the last night they would all spend together, and every bond in the house would be severely tested by this event.

"Come on kiddo, I'll read you a story." Sakura mumbled eventually, ushering him back into his room, Syaoran followed, and Yue and Kero: knowing their place, stayed put, ready to comfort the parents when they returned from what was bound to be an emotional last goodnight.  
"What's the matter?" Innocent childlike eyes scanned his parents, he was naïve, he was sweet, he was pure, but he was also not a fool, he could read his parents grim expressions.  
"I'll tell you everything tomorrow." Syaoran promised, kissing his son's head, the boy looked at his mother, who nodded in agreement knowing she could not keep him, but cherishing the seven years she had known and loved such a sweet angel. She had to hold onto the hope that one day she would see him again.  
"Promise." She swore, kissing his cheek.  
"Ahh again with the kissing." He complained wriggling free from the airlock between his parents and disappearing under his sheets to find his book, he returned moments later with a heavy tome of faerietales, handing it to his mother.

She looked at Syaoran, she looked at her son, face lit up by the wing shaped lamp by his bed, before nodding and opening the book. She could believe in faerietales, they were something that somewhere along the line were once based on fact.  
"_Once upon a time in a kingdom far far away_." She began, and reached for her baby's hand as he lay back, listening to his mother's melodious voice, blissfully ignorant of the web he was about to become entangled in. Syaoran slid his hand across and closed it over their laced fingers in support. No matter what time zone, era, dimension etc… they would always love the boy who so closely resembled his father.

"_Once upon a time_." She repeated, over the initial shock of the beautiful domestic scene. "_In a kingdom far far away_."  
"Mom you already said that part." Moaned the little boy, amused at the sentimentality of his parents and slightly airheaded mother.  
"Ah ignore her she's going senile." Joked Syaoran, and at that moment Sakura knew her family was perfect the way it was.  
"And I'll repeat it again if you boys keep interrupting." She scolded playfully.

"_Once upon a time in a kingdom far far away there lived a most beautiful princess_." She whispered. "_Though she was young, her power was great, and thus a few days before her seventh birthday she was taken to the ruins just beyond her castle_…"

A/n: Sorry but I HAD to write it. Also, the manga doesn't clarify if Tsubasa-Syaoran is actually called Syaoran, that is the name he gave to Yuko, but at least in my scanlation it read 'that is your father's name', was she accusing him of giving a false name or did they really name him Syaoran?

Also, reviews are amazing.  
Also also... peanutbutter.


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